Jeremy Harris
Senior Member
I can foresee an unintended, probably massively under-reported, issue arising here.
I don't think I'm alone in having grave reservations about the way that Microsoft have switched their business model. All companies need a revenue stream, but Microsoft (and others) have realised that the one-time licence fee is not viable now that OS updates are rarely significant enough to be needed by the majority of users. They've switched to a business model (not just for Windows 10, they have retrospectively applied it to Windows 7 and 8, via "important updates"), where they taken data from your PC and use it to earn revenue. This is far from new, supermarkets have been doing it for years with "loyalty" cards and other operating systems, like Android, use it as pretty much the whole basis for their app income stream.
For those who are content to comply with this clause that they have to accept in order to run Windows then it probably isn't a concern:
Those most likely to be concerned about the technical issues regarding privacy loss are also likely to be hobbyists who may well be interested in using the Picaxe system. Certainly I'm one that falls into that category, and I know of a few dozen like-minded friends who feel the same way. A couple of years ago I decided to switch to Linux, prompted by a school teacher friend who had just switched all his school systems over to Linux and LibreOffice. It's far from straightforward, at least for me, who's never had any dealings with Unix-based systems, but generally Linux tends to be a lot faster, easy to use, far less irritating (like it always updates silently, and NEVER stops you working or needs a reboot!). 99% of popular applications are available in Linux versions, or run under WINE OK. I use a lot of oddball stuff, from terminal emulators, mathematical modelling packages though to office applications, CAD systems and microcontroller programming tools.
There are only two applications that I'd like to use but have to run on Windows; AutoCad (although their cut down 2 D version, AutoSketch runs fine under WINE on Linux) and the Picaxe PE6. PE5 may well be unsupported, but I have it installed on 5 machines running Linux and one running Windows (for compatibility reasons) and it works fine under WINE.
Blockly is an excellent educational tool, and I understand that education is where Rev Ed is focussed, but frankly it's not good as a programming editor for those of us that have tens of years of coding experience.
I can't help but feel that all those of us who are making the switch to Linux (and I'm sure that many hobbyists will over the next few years) will find that we either have to retain an old Windows machine just to programme Picaxe chips, or give up on the Picaxe and move to one of the myriad of other systems that offer a wide range of programming interfaces, that will run on many different operating systems. Recently I've been using a Chromium app to programme chips directly, and that seems like a good option, as it makes the application free from any operating system restrictions. Chromium (or the commercial version Chrome - same caveat above as to how it generates revenue!) runs on practically anything, so a programming editor developed to run on that would work the same way on any device.
These are just the ramblings of one person, who is insignificant in terms of your overall customer base, but they may, perhaps, resonate with quite a large number of current, and future, Picaxe users.
I don't think I'm alone in having grave reservations about the way that Microsoft have switched their business model. All companies need a revenue stream, but Microsoft (and others) have realised that the one-time licence fee is not viable now that OS updates are rarely significant enough to be needed by the majority of users. They've switched to a business model (not just for Windows 10, they have retrospectively applied it to Windows 7 and 8, via "important updates"), where they taken data from your PC and use it to earn revenue. This is far from new, supermarkets have been doing it for years with "loyalty" cards and other operating systems, like Android, use it as pretty much the whole basis for their app income stream.
For those who are content to comply with this clause that they have to accept in order to run Windows then it probably isn't a concern:
(and no, you cannot turn this off permanently, it will turn back on every time Windows updates, and some of it cannot be turned off no matter what you do, short of blocking all their servers in your black list). For interest, Microsoft rolled the same system out to Windows 7 and 8, via an update around a year ago, so unless you've specifically deleted the update and taken other action they are collecting data from you to generate revenue. I've found that Microsoft try to re-install this update around once every month or so (on my old Windows 7 machine), so unless you're vigilant and refuse that particular update your machine will be sending data about anything you do to Microsoft."Interests and favorites. We collect data about your interests and favorites, such as the teams you follow in a sports app, the stocks you track in a finance app, or the favorite cities you add to a weather app. In addition to those you explicitly provide, your interests and favorites may also be inferred or derived from other data we collect.
Contacts and relationships. We collect data about your contacts and relationships if you use a Microsoft service to manage contacts, or to communicate or interact with other people or organizations.
Finally, we will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary."
Those most likely to be concerned about the technical issues regarding privacy loss are also likely to be hobbyists who may well be interested in using the Picaxe system. Certainly I'm one that falls into that category, and I know of a few dozen like-minded friends who feel the same way. A couple of years ago I decided to switch to Linux, prompted by a school teacher friend who had just switched all his school systems over to Linux and LibreOffice. It's far from straightforward, at least for me, who's never had any dealings with Unix-based systems, but generally Linux tends to be a lot faster, easy to use, far less irritating (like it always updates silently, and NEVER stops you working or needs a reboot!). 99% of popular applications are available in Linux versions, or run under WINE OK. I use a lot of oddball stuff, from terminal emulators, mathematical modelling packages though to office applications, CAD systems and microcontroller programming tools.
There are only two applications that I'd like to use but have to run on Windows; AutoCad (although their cut down 2 D version, AutoSketch runs fine under WINE on Linux) and the Picaxe PE6. PE5 may well be unsupported, but I have it installed on 5 machines running Linux and one running Windows (for compatibility reasons) and it works fine under WINE.
Blockly is an excellent educational tool, and I understand that education is where Rev Ed is focussed, but frankly it's not good as a programming editor for those of us that have tens of years of coding experience.
I can't help but feel that all those of us who are making the switch to Linux (and I'm sure that many hobbyists will over the next few years) will find that we either have to retain an old Windows machine just to programme Picaxe chips, or give up on the Picaxe and move to one of the myriad of other systems that offer a wide range of programming interfaces, that will run on many different operating systems. Recently I've been using a Chromium app to programme chips directly, and that seems like a good option, as it makes the application free from any operating system restrictions. Chromium (or the commercial version Chrome - same caveat above as to how it generates revenue!) runs on practically anything, so a programming editor developed to run on that would work the same way on any device.
These are just the ramblings of one person, who is insignificant in terms of your overall customer base, but they may, perhaps, resonate with quite a large number of current, and future, Picaxe users.